Story FragmentsOmake
by N. Reynolds
Summary: These are pieces of stories that never had the chance to bloom. I'd be interested if someone else wanted to continue them. I've put back the 4th one, to keep the comments and the chapters matching when I get to the 5th one
1. The Great Hunt

"Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to day one of operation manhunt. The game where these four ladies get to compete in a constructive fashion to prove who is the better woman. The game will proceed until the target manages to loose his pursuers, and make it back to the Tendo Dojo, which is considered neutral ground. If the game lasts until sundown, the hunters may start another round the next morning. Our target will, of course, be waiting to restart at dawn, as cheating removes the safehouse priviledges of the Tendo Dojo, and the chase proceeds until the hunters get bored.  
  
"If a male helps a female or attacks the target, then the male becomes the new victim the next day. This is the only way that the target may be changed.  
  
"In addition to our four lovely competitors, we have another contestant, who will be playing just for fun for the first round. May I introduce Ranma's mother, Nodoka Saotome.  
  
"The winner for each round will be determined by whom the target thinks was the most dangerous. Contestants wishing to dispute the target's opinion, may pummel him senseless during the next round. Ranma, do you fully accept these rules?"  
  
"I do, with the proviso that there be three seconds before the females chase. The three seconds start when Nabiki holds up her hands to clap. Agreed?" Everyone agrees. Ranma adds, "Oh, and one last announcement before Nabiki starts us off. I'm not the target, my father is."  
  
Nabiki claps. Genma looks shocked at the grinning females for a second, and then runs for it. Nabiki starts up a running commentary "Genma starts with a straight sprint, interrupted by Kodachi's Razor hoop.Genma tries to cut right, But his wife and Ukyou are flanking him. He fakes and goes left, only receiving a glancing blow from Shanpoo's bonbori. Akane lacks the reach but fades to the outside, forcing Genma to try to escape a pincer movement. Oh, he goes into the crouch of the wild tiger this early. It fails, and he gets headblows from Shampoo and Ukyou, and looses a sleeve to his wife's warning cut. Kodachi tosses out a pie. Genma snatches and eats it. Aparently Kodachi planted her tracking device inside, Nodoka removes his other sleeve. Akane gets a solid blow to the solar plexus. Genma uses it to roll clear, and limp four meters from the girls. Kodachi and Shampoo move to flank. He makes a break for it. tripped by a thrown spatula, a tumble and he's broken free, but in the opposite direction from safe ground. More reports as news comes in. Ranma, why is your father the target instead of you?"  
  
"None of them want to beat me up, and everyone wants revenge on him."  
  
"Could you tell the other spectators why the women want revenge on him?"  
  
Well, he ran out on momma when I was six, and took me with him. And the fact that he engaged me to both Akane and Ukyou gives them all reason enough to pound him. Shanpoo especially has to do well, as her great grandmother is judging her on her performance, and Ukyou is still mad at being dishonored and abandoned when she was six. Oh yes, mom knows about the catfist training, which Shampoo is especially upset over. Oh, and for those of you betting, Kodachi is the only one who doesn't know he turns into a panda, but she's got that radar thingie to track him with. And according to the rules, cologne could help whomever she wants, but is using this as a test for Shampoo. I should add, Pops recently insulted Cologne.  
  
***  
  
"And that ends round one. To recap, Nodoka was judged the clear winner, having sliced off her husband's clothes piece by piece, leaving him running in his boxers most of the day. The closest point Genma made it to the safe zone was after destroying Kodachi's transmitter. He had gotten by Shampoo, Kodachi and Ukyou, and was heading for the dojo. No one knew where he was, and if he snuck by Akane and his wife, he would have made it, but Cologne stopped his forward progress with a pair of bakusai tonkatsu, and delayed him with the splitting hair's technique, as soon as the contestants arrived, she stopped, and left him to his fate. Tune in tomorrow, when his wife won't compete, but five other Furinken students will also play just for the fun of it, and Azusa Shiratori will be after his boxers, God help her.  
***  
"Ukyou gets an early lead, hitting Genma with a tranque gun concealed behind her spatula. Out of respect, the other girls form a ring around the two, giving Ukyou a chance for a few one-on-one hits. Genma makes a break for it, another dart, this one from Kodachi with another transmitter. Akane gets in Genma's way, and she force feeds him something homemade containing her transmitter. Solid Steel stomach Saotome involuntarily returns the food and transmitter over Akane. Akane never hit Ranma there, well Ranma doesn't need any siblings anyway. Genma unlocks the dreaded Umisenken! But it fails before a rose petal storm, directed by Kodachi's tracking device." 


	2. I Dream of Djinni

I Dream of Djinni  
or   
A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat  
or   
Djinn and Tonic  
  
  
After stopping a pitiful attempt to rob the Nekohanten, we find Mousse removing blood from his swan potty-trainer. While his Fist of the White Swan never had worked on Ranma, it was perfect for dealing with petty crooks. While rubbing the swan with a damp washcloth, a cloud of smoke started to emerge, and took the shape of a man's torso ending in a cloud of smoke.  
  
The Djinn looked at Mousse and said "How the hell did you come up with the idea to attack with a potty-trainer?"  
  
"It was in my family's collection of precious weapons."  
  
"It was there because I was inside it. Not because it was a weapon. I was trapped in there by an ancestor of yours with what passes for a bizarre sense of humor. Personally I think she would have benefitted from psychotherapy."  
  
"Is this going to be a case of revenge on the descendant?"  
  
"No point to it. It's not a bad life in there. Gives you time to think. Plus I've been keeping up with the outside world by letters for years. I've even picked up a few college degrees by mail. Also had a chance to do some serious reading. You know what? Ninety percent of what you humans publish IS crap. But the other ten percent makes it worthwhile. I could have left any time in the last hundred years but it wasn't worth the effort."  
  
"Oh, then I guess I can't expect 3 wishes for releasing you."  
  
"Sorry. I decided to come out when you performed the requisite rubbing just to stretch my legs, so to speak. You wouldn't happen to have any Stilton, would you? I haven't had it in years."  
  
"What's Stilton?"  
  
"A type of cheese. Nevermind. It's not important. You have too much of something that I want, and I can do something that may get you what you want. At least it'll make your life a bit more pleasant. But being human, you'll probably refuse. I can give you perfect vision, and a set of exercises that take 10 minutes a day which will maintain your vision sharper than most people."  
  
"And you want my soul?"  
  
"Nope. Not my kink. Nasty things those disembodied souls are. An artist can make lovely things from them, but I don't have the tallent. Most raw souls make me sick to my stomach. No, I lost my emotions a few centuries ago, and I've grown tired of the overly analytical life. This emotionless `Live long and prosper' gets old real fast. I want to try `Be fruitful and multiply' again."  
  
"You want my love of Shampoo? I'll never give her up!"  
  
"No, no, no! I don't want to go through adolescense again, I want some of your ability to feel strong emotions. Not your particular emotions. And I can't take it all from you, just some of it. It will also keep you from loosing your head around Shampoo while you try to win her, and make the process less painful for you."  
  
"You'd give me sight, and then take away my appreciation of Shampoo's beauty in exchange?"  
  
"No. Doesn't work that way. Appreciation of beauty is an aspect of the intellectual mind. Emotions actually cloud your perceptions. This will keep you from running into her bonbori while you run toward her. As an added bonus, since your human, whatever I remove from you emotionally will grow back over time, while your vision could last a lifetime if you're careful. I guarantee my work to be free of initial defects, but I don't provide a warrantee if your vision is subsequently lost due to accident. Don't gouge out your eyes or stare at the sun at noon. I can also remove any current tendencies toward glaucoma, but future mutagens and virii could recause it anyway as you get older."  
  
"But if I agree, I'll probably regret it. What will you do? turn me into a rabbit?"  
  
"No. This is a straight deal. You need your retinas reattached to the back of your eyes, and the dead nerves replaced. The muscles controlling the shape and focus of the eye are also pretty weak, so we regenerate those too. Flush out the few bodily poisons that might eventually lead to complication, and correct a slight astigmatism in your left lens that no one noticed because of the severity of your other problems. While we're at it, I can change the color of your irises, if you like. Only other side effect I can imagine, is that you'll need to sleep for eight hours for your body to recover from the changes."  
  
"Could you cure my Jhusenkyou curse too?"  
  
"Sorry, that's water magic, my racial affinity is wind. That curse is a tangle of magic that I'd likely make worse through fiddling. It'd be like a doctor trying to fix a broken arm, when all he's learned to use was a chainsaw. I might be able to fix it, but I wouldn't risk being the patient."  
  
"Ok, you've got a deal, we can do it tonight when I go to sleep."  
***  
  
  
Note: "This was intended as a fic exploring what would happen if Mousse still  
loved Shampoo, but didn't feel the overwhelming need to invade her personal  
space. Shampoo would have to deal with a Mousse that was willing to ignore  
her, and able to be mad at her behavior. Unfortunately I feel no desire to  
continue it. 


	3. Nodoka

"After my husband sneaked out of our house one night, carrying Ranma and leaving a document behind promising to make Ranma a `Man among men', I waited three years for some word of his whereabouts, but I never received a single note.  
"I finally decided that this went far beyond all reasons, and filed papers with the courts. When the courts couldn't find him, they eventually acceeded to all my requests. I am head of the Saotome family, and sole legal guardian of my son, Ranma. My divorced husband, Genma, has no family name, I'm afraid that if he's still using the Saotome name, I shall have to punish him.  
"Anyway, four years later, I had him declared legally dead, as he'd been missing for seven years, so if he decides to uphold his honor, there wont be any problem with the courts over his seppuku. If you do come across Genma or my son, would you please inform them of this? If he doesn't return my son, I will have him arrested for kidnapping a minor."  
Soun looks shocked "But what about our agreement to unite the two families?"  
"Oh, that's between you and Genma to decide. All arrangements or commitments that my son has accumulated while in his care, are legally Genma's burden. Ranma has never been obliged to carry on any burden other than carrying on my family line."  
"But this agreement preceeds your divorce. It happened before Ranma was even born. Surely it's valid."  
"That man never asked my approval of the arrangement, or even mentioned it when it happenned. I told him when I found out about it, that I was against the idea of an arranged marriage. After all, look how mine turned out. He assumed that when the time came, he could order me to accept it. He assumed he'd be in a position to dictate how my son and my own life would proceed."  
Nabiki interjects, "Surely you're observant enough to know that when he hears of this, he'll grab Ranma and run for it."  
"Oh yes, that's why I briefed the police and the school on this situation before approaching you. They informed me of my offspring's unique problem with water, and Genma's transformation also. The police will escort Ranma here as soon as he's found. Just before I left the station I heard they found Genma. He should still be sleeping off the tranquilizers in his pen in the zoo."  
"The zoo?"  
"Yes, the police said they didn't have cells suitable for animals, and as he has sizeable tabs at several bars, his rental to the zoo should help cover some of them, while his various outrages across Japan are coalated, and presented to him."  
Soun looked shocked. "You'd do that to your husband?"  
"Of course not. I'm only trying to retrieve my son, and present Genma with the official paperwork for our divorce, and retrieve his hanko, of course. The rest of the situation arose independently when the police tried to trace Ranma's whereabouts."  
Soun wailed "But he's engaged to marry my daughter, Akane."  
"Oh, that's no problem. If my son asks me for permission, who am I to refuse him."  
Nabiki snorts "Like that will happen. Ranma and Akane have been quite vocal about not wanting to get married."  
"Well then, the answer is quite simple. Genma must make repartitions to you. I understand you've been friends for years, so you should know how reliable he is in fulfilling his obligations."  
"This is not acceptable. Genma swore we'd unite our families. Ranma must marry Akane!"  
"I don't mind if you want to bring Genma into your family. But you will not use Ranma to do this. Ranma is a Saotome, Genma is not. I'm willing to forgive you for pressuring my son, as you were deceived by my ex-husband. But from this point on, if you try to force my son against his will, then I shall have to take action against your clan."  
"Now, now. I'm sure that isn't necessary."  
"If you persist to insult my clan saying that my son is failing to behave honorably, then I will answer that insult. If your daughter and my son want to marry or date, that is one thing. If you try to apply any pressure to my son, I will react directly. If it is necessary, I'll swear that our families won't be united, and kill your dreams once and for all."  
"But what about the art?"  
"That has nothing to do with it. Ranma is merely a student of the Saotome school. If you and Ranma wish, I have no objections to him studying under you. Ranma has a moral obligation to pass on his training, just as you do. What more do you expect him to do?  
  
  
  
Note: This idea is too sensible to make into a decent story. The only way I'd  
continue this one is if I had another story idea causing chaos involving Ranma  
and the fiancees, that I could merge with this one, or if I wanted to write a  
crossover with another series.  
  
It's also totally out of character, as it implies that one of the adults has  
half a brain. 


	4. A Truely Martial Art

A Truely Martial Art  
  
"I want my mommy!" A five year old Ranma told the uncaring world.  
  
"Stop your whining!" His loving father suggested, adding emphasis by cuffing his son in the head hard enough to partially stun Ranma, and interrupt his litany of misery. "We had to leave your mother so that I could make you into a martial artist, like your father."  
  
--------------------------------  
  
A six year old Ranma cries out "Don't throw me in the pit again!"  
  
"This is for your own good. In order to be a martial artist, you must be willing to do anything, no matter how unpleasant."  
  
--------------------------------  
  
"I miss Ucchan!"  
  
"A martial artist must always be on the move."  
  
--------------------------------  
  
The shinto priest asks an eight year old Ranma, who is sweeping to pay for his lessons "Why do you want to become a martial artist?"  
  
Ranma has not yet learned how to lie about important things "So I can finally stop training."  
  
"Martial arts is not like classes in school. Martial artists never finish training. They train their whole life."  
  
"But, but. What do you do if someone attacks you and you don't want to fight?"  
  
"Ahh. Has your father ever discussed tactics in fighting?"  
  
"He told me to insult people so they get mad and make mistakes."  
  
The priest chuckles "That's one type of tactic. Tactics are ways to change situations to your advantage. They work with martial arts. Ideally tactics can be used to keep fights from occurring. Sun Tzu once said that the best way to victory is to arrange it so that you have won before the battle begins. He said anyone can fight, but the superior general arranges things so that he has won without ever needing to fight."  
  
"How does he do that?"  
  
"It's not easy. You have to be better at tactics than your opponent. This is very hard when you're so young, but if you start studying now, you could be good enough that you'd only have to fight when and if you wanted to fight."  
  
"How do I start?"  
  
"Well the traditional method is to begin by reading these works and trying to understand them."  
  
Luckily, 'The Art of War' and Musashi's 'The Five Rings' are rather concise works that could be carried by a small child for months before his father discovered them. Other sensei gave him works from both the occidental and oriental worlds for his study, eventually leading to works by more modern fighters, involving the kinds of practical chemistry that has made warfare so much more dangerous and impersonal. However he had to work to keep his bomb making skills secret from his father.  
  
Surprisingly enough, his father encouraged his production of alchohol, as he drank most of it. Genma never did connect the ideas of drinking alchohol, with flamethrowers, molotov cocktails, and fuel-air bombs. And while his father tried to put a stop to his making blackpowder, he never even recognized the production of thermite, or a number of chemical poisons produced during cooking or while making herbal first-aid remedies.  
  
The necessity of performing all his own first aid, led to learning much of the healer's art, without the burden of the Hippocanthic oath. A shiatsu cure for constipation practiced daily on his father guaranteed that he never reached the full bulk traditionally associated with Genma.  
  
Genma contributed more to Ranma's education as an experimental guinneapig than he ever did with anything relating to Ranma's schoolwork.  
--------------------------------  
--------------------------------  
This story was first posted, and deleted, and lost, two years ago.  
  
I'm putting it back, mostly so that the chapters mentioned in the reviews match up with the chapters in the story.  
  
This story turned into "Bitter Memories" when I wondered what the effect on the story line would be if Ranma had access to truth serums, and decided upon meeting the Tendos that Genma was untrustworthy enough to warrant using drugs on his father. The idea of "Ranma with knowledge of what's going on" overshadowed "Ranma, with tactics, and education", so I scrapped all of that, and started "Bitter Memories" where Ranma gets an overview of the whole story, but (hopefully) remains Ranma in character.  
  
The other reason for scrapping this story, was that Ranma was way too powerful. Happodaikarin laced with thermite pretty much top any fighter, except the 2 elders, Pantyhose Tarou, Herb, and Saffron. "Kodachi throws her razor hoop, and misses the challenger. The challenger throws flaming death which melts through steel! Luckily flaming death is legal in this tournament!" "'They're so cute! Jean-Paul, Claudette, Michelle!' Boom! Boom! Boom! 'Ouchie.'"  
  
I'll begin posting the revision of "Bitter Memories" as soon as I work out the first training scene. I was considering using a pit of lime jello, but Nabiki would have balked at the price. 


End file.
